Message from the Vice-Chairman

Corporate Governance message from outgoing Vice-Chairman & CEO Paul A. Aquino

  

Throughout our history, we have measured our performance not only by financial returns, but by the benefit that redound to our stakeholders. Doing the right thing, with a long-term view of our actions, is a hallmark of the EDC brand. By continuing to grow our enterprise in ways that build sustainable value, we help to fulfill our responsibility to our communities, to the environment and to our investors and business partners. When our business and our people perform with integrity, we all benefit.

An essential ingredient of good corporate governance is accurate, timely and comprehensive corporate disclosure. Corporate disclosure encompasses all types of information provided by the company about its past, present and future, no matter whether it is disseminated in the form of annual reports, SEC disclosures, announcements or statements made in public. Shareholders, investors and members of the public take all these into account in forming their views about the corporate governance, solvency and future prospect of the company. In EDC, this helps cultivate the confidence of shareholders and investors while building up the company’s good public image and reputation. As we have observed, all of these have a positive bearing on the share price and business of the company since its highly acclaimed listing in the stock exchange three years ago.

As you may have observed in our Annual Reports, we have been giving equal importance to three bottomlines, namely economic, environment and community. We have adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards in time for the preparation of the company’s consolidated financial statements following the acquisition of a hydropower business. We will institute a sustainability reporting system and publish a GRI-based Sustainability Report starting 2010. We have consolidated all our CSR programs under the Community Partnerships banner focusing on four areas where EDC will create the most positive impact – environment, education, livelihood and health.

As a result of the Board’s continuing efforts to implement the policy of good corporate governance, EDC is emerging as a model among publicly listed companies. In 2007, EDC made its debut by entering the Top 20 companies that practice good corporate governance in the scorecard rated by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD). It obtained a corporate governance score of 84%, as against the average score of 65% obtained by other 138 publicly-listed companies (PLCs) and the average score of 76% obtained by other companies in the category of “Electricity, Energy, Power and Water”. After submitting to another survey, EDC moved up to the Top 15 tier garnering a score between 90 percent to 94 percent. For two consecutive years, our Annual Report has consistently ranked in the elite top 20 best annual reports of the Management Association of the Philippines, a clear indication of the company’s honest and balanced performance reporting.

Our VISION and your TRUST have made EDC one of the most resilient and viable energy companies in the Philippines. You can be assured that we in EDC will continue to do our best to maintain your trust, as we strive to become a global renewable energy company.

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